1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for effecting hydrogen sorption and dissociation on an adsorbent metal, such as magnesium and magnesium-nickel alloy. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for use in carrying out hydrogen sorption and dissociation on an absorbent metal in an efficient manner. It is generally known to heat an adsorbent to a high temperature to effect hydrogen sorption or dissociation thereon. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for instantly producing an optimum condition at which hydrogen sorption and dissociation smoothly proceed.
2. Background of the Invention
It is known in the art that an adsorbent metal must be heated to an operative temperature to effect hydrogen sorption and separation thereon. In this specification the "sorption" means that hydrogen is adsorbed on an adsorbent metal, and the "dissociation" means that an adsorbed hydrogen is released from the adsorbent. The conventional practice to heat an adsorbent is the use of an extra heater which is provided on the vessel, with the use of heat medium as a heat source.
In such known systems the metal contained in the vessel is heated through heat transfer, which is called, in an indirect method. Such methods invoke a lot of heat loss, and take a relatively long time before the required temperature is obtained. Normally, after the heater is started at a room temperature, it takes more than a minute. In addition, an apparatus including the vessel and the heater as a whole becomes complicated and large-scaled, which reflects in the cost. In order to accelerate the heating of the adsorbent in the vessel, there are many proposals, one of which is to provide as many heating spots as possible, or to increase the areas of heat transfer, or to step up the output of the heater. However, these proposals cannot solve the problems pointed out above, and what is worse, the structure becomes more complicated, large-scaled and expensive.